In the art of fiberoptics, much effort has been devoted to designing devices for fusing together the ends of two optical fibers in a manner ensuring the proper optical performance of the resulting optical line. The teachings of the following related art are incorporated herein by reference where applicable.
Known in the art are fusion elements, usually in the form of sleeves, having built-in heating means e.g. electrodes and adapted to accommodate two exposed ends of a pair of fibers to be fused, the ends arranged along a passline. The use of such sleeves necessitates of course the supply of voltage to be applied to conductive terminals of the electrodes. An example of such a sleeve with built-in electrodes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,974 to Munn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,902 to Hensel describes a device for joining optical fiber ends by positioning the end parts in vacuum-operated chucks. The chucks are forced together by means of piezoelectric elements which are operated by the power supply of a welding arc between the chucks.
Zucker, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,768, describes a method of splicing optical fibers using an apparatus also employing vacuum chucks, a fusion splicer block, an integrating cylinder and radiometer means for providing an indication of the position of the fiber ends.
Szanto et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,351, propose a fusion splicer featuring a base member with an arc region, a clamp member and a biasing arrangement. The clamp member includes three fingers each capable of imposing a different biasing force to accommodate different-sized fibers.
Still different fiber splicing devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,199,223 and 5,146,527.
None of the prior art devices offers the possibility of releasably holding a sleeve, or other splice element having integral electrodes and adapted to retain two ends of optical fibers to be spliced in axial alignment, and supplying fusing energy to the contact area of the ends through the electrode means of the splice element. Also, none of the prior art references teaches a tool adapted to hold and supply fusing energy to inexpensive, disposable fiber-fusing splice elements.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple and compact, preferably hand-held device for releasably securing a splice element and for providing fusing energy to the fiber ends to be fused through the electrodes of the splice elements.